this is the latest bid by assad to up the ante in this long civil war. jill dougherty is at the state department with more this morning. what do you have for us, jill? >> you know, the significance of this really is that with the gains that the rebels are making, these are lethal weapons, the scuds. that's a sign, as they have been making grounds, that the regime of bashar al assad is taking more and more serious weapons, more lethal weapons to counter that. these were fired towards the north, towards the turkish border. it was pointed out they came close, but they didn't go over the border. that's significant because, remember, just last week, nato approved patriot missile -- anti-missile defenses that will be installed in turkey. and that, the united states will be doing, so will germany an the dutch. finally, another point to this, as we were talking with experts, you can put chemical weapons on scuds. that apparently has not been done but that was a concern. remember, just a week or two ago about the chemical weapons. so far it's conventional, but th